The Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has stated that the 2019 polls are riddled with fraud.

Onaiyekan, a member of the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee (NPC), told Saturday Sun in Abuja that by resorting to court process, the former vice president has saved the nation from chaos.

The former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) further said with the outcome of the 2019 election, Nigerians have been short-changed from electing their leaders, while also saying that it is difficult to know if anybody won anything in the election.

According to Onaiyekan,” I am still to know whether all the irregularities and the problems were inevitable or whether they were actually deliberate manipulation and the only reason why anybody should want to disrupt the process is that the person does not want the people to make their choice.”

Onaiyekan said the decision of the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to challenge the outcome of the February 23 presidential election at the tribunal, is a move in the right direction.

Disclosing his word for Atiku on the presidential election, Onaiyekan said: “I tell Atiku he has done the right thing. He has every right to go to court because if he doesn’t go to court, what does he do?

“Either he keeps quiet and swallows injustice or he perhaps incites his followers to start shouting and complaining and creating chaos.

“He has decided not to go in this direction, to go to court with his presumption that the court is the last port of call for any Nigerian who is aggrieved. They have started the process; we don’t know how far it will go.”

•Culled from a Saturday Sun report

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